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| Home > Hiking in U.S.A. > Mt. Whitney MR |
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MT. WHITNEY MR by Alex Chen This is the weekend we have been planning – climbing Mt. Whitney mountaineering route. All that training was to be put to the test and the best part was that most of us felt ready. We left LA early Friday, picked up some poop bags at the ranger station and made camp at Whitney Portal at 11am or so. We had 3 tents and plenty of gear to prepare. We did our usual test hike to learn the trail and to acclimatize ourselves with the altitude. Then, we drove down to Lone Pine for dinner and back up to camp for the night. Again, the girls had a hard time sleeping and did not get much sleep. We woke at 3AM, broke down tent, packed, and started to hike at 4:20AM. Most of us felt sluggish in the morning, but by daybreak we reached Lower Boy Scout Lake. Some of us got tricked on climbing higher instead of staying with the slabs. Jack! Slabs are your friend, they are stairs to heaven. Nevertheless, we arrived at Upper Boy Scout Lake and took a few more breaks. We all felt pretty tired by the time we reached Iceberg Lake, so we took a last long break to pump water and gear up for class 3 climb. Quang, our coach plus leader, told us to climb up the left side of the chute. That was a great call, as the chute itself had too much loose pebble. Some climbers that started after us decided to pass us, but they did not realize they were kicking off rocks, so we were forced to break and move out of their rock projectile path. They were not the smartest hikers, but since we wanted them out of our way, I helped them when they had difficulty going up. The climb to the last notch took us a few hours, much more time than we had planned. Somehow the girls had less trouble than the men and were climbing at a faster pace. By the time we went up the last chute, we were completely exhausted. The last of us reached Mt Whitney Peak at 4:30PM, which gave us very little time of sunlight for our descent. We ate our snacks, took a few victory pictures, and started to descend. The weather got colder at the 99 switchbacks, and I was really concerned with nightfall. I remembered last year that when the sun had set, the wind picked up and it became unbearably cold. So I rushed our group and urged everybody to hike down as fast as he/she could to Trail Camp and then to Consultation Lake. Darkness overtook us before we reached Mirror Lake. The southern ridges blocked the full moon; so it was a train of bobbing head-lamps and slow pace hikers all the way to Outpost Camp. Lone Pine Lake came after that, but again we were not able to see squat. It was already midnight by the time we reached the last creek crossing. We were very hungry but did not feel like eating. We were extremely sleepy but could not fall asleep. Our hike down felt endless. It might have been more enjoyable if we had sufficient sleep the night before and if we hadn’t used up most our energy ascending. When we reached the bottom, we met a few hikers ascending early, and wished them luck with our dead tired voice. So, yes we hiked up Mt Whitney-MR, but it took us 20 hours. That was the longest descent I have ever endured. Well, it’s something to tell our grandkids, right? See Photos of Mt. Whitney MR hike Read about other hikes: Strawberry Pk Clamshell Pk Cactus to Tram Sugarloaf Mt. Whitney MR Mt. Russell Cactus to Clouds Iron to Baldy |
© copyright 2006 Hester Han. All Rights Reserved.